Review of Culture in stores

The current issue of the international edition of the Review of Culture, a monthly publication edited by the Cultural Affairs Institute has hit the shelves.
The cover story – “Cities and borders” – gives a perfect example of how many of the limitations and opportunities found in Macau are related to the existence of boundaries.
The city and the true identity of Macau can also be understood by looking carefully at the ebb and flow of cross-border activity over history.
After the Portuguese settled in the 16th century, the “Christian city” and “Chinese bazaar” evolved.
From there, cultural barriers converged in the 19th century and Macau’s contemporary political geography was outlined, amid never-ending tension with the surrounding waters in which the city has sought, since the early 20th century, to claw back land for its
explosive urban growth.
This issue of Review of Culture also includes a set of articles, which aim to break down the disciplinary barriers between different research fields: Geography, History, Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology.
For instance, the article “Borders from the Perspective of Good Neighbourhood” focuses on cross-border cooperation and the building of “good neighbourhoods” in European border cities.
Mainly based on empirical studies at the German-Polish, the Swiss-German and the Austrian-Hungarian borders and complemented by a US-Mexican case, it argues that it is time to go beyond the concept of cross-border cooperation and look at the daily practice and narratives of constructing neighbourhoods at the local level.
“Borders Within the City: Retracing Macau’s Identity” looks into the issue of border constructions in Macau, bringing in a historicised view of local sociocultural phenomena and retracing Macau’s identity.